Girls warned playing didgeridoo could cause infertility
The Victorian Aboriginal Education Association has called for the The Australian edition of The Daring Book for Girls to be pulped because it teaches girls how to play the didgeridoo. The organization says women who play the instrument will be cursed with infertility.
Girls warned playing didgeridoo could cause infertility (via Arbroath)The section on the didgeridoo was "part of a general ignorance that mainstream Australia has about Aboriginal culture," the association's general manager Mark Rose told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"We know very clearly that there's a range of consequences for a female touching a didgeridoo -- infertility would be the start of it, ranging to other consequences," he said, adding: "I won't even let my daughter touch one."
the latest
latest episodes
Sigh.
This reminds me of the time in college that I worked with a Sudanese student. Our supervisor chewed us out for some obvious errors and he spoke up saying, "Why should I even listen to you, you're an unclean woman and worth of all our contempt!"
hoo boy. Different cultures. Interesting how they don't always make you feel like an "ugly American" for not understanding their culture.
That would be an appropriate correction for The Provisionally Politically Correct Book For Young Persons Identifying As Female. Now, if I were a girl, and someone told me that some men wanted to pulp a book because they claimed that it contained activities that girls weren't supposed to do, at the very least I'd want to get a copy, scan it, and distribute it across as many BitTorrent servers as I could.
...Boy, if only we could get books pubished that show kids how listening to (c)Rap music will permanently destroy their sex drive and increase the rist of their genitals falling off, we could *really* have some fun!
two issues here. At least. I myself don't think every aspect of every culture is worth saving. But that decision should be made by those that own the culture.
'Victorian' is right...
Sheesh
because it teaches girls how to pay the didgeridoo
what do you get for paying a didgeridoo?
Hey Takuan,
I agree at least two issue
superstitous bullshit
and
misogyny
I think I could respect the outrage if they had limited their objections to it's "definitely a men's business ceremonial tool". Lots of cultures have divided rituals between the genders.
They open themselves up to a whole bunch of mockery and accusations by saying something so ludicrous (this would be the mockery) and easily disprovable as infertility is the result of touching one.
It's the difference between prohibition based on fear (masturbation causes blindness) and prohibition based on reason (excessive masturbation may dampen your libido for when you're with your partner).
...New thought:
"I guess this rules out creating a combination musical instrument and sex toy called a 'Didgeridildo', huh?"
[ducks behind large rock]
Surely, somewhere amongst the 6 billion people on earth there must be a female didgeridoo virtuoso, who has children.
I guess I can't also expect that she's a BoingBoing reader, but somehow I don't think I'd be surprised. :o)
I'm not an Australian or an aboriginal person, but I understand that aboriginal culture is by no means monolithic - some tribes have a taboo against women using the didgeridoo, others don't. So I don't think it's that simple; Dr. Rose can't claim to speak for everyone.
I personally would be behind him if he said, "People, please stop using our ceremonial instruments as curiosities and making asses of yourself. Do you understand how stupid you look when you play the didgeridoo? Please," instead of trying to make others share his superstition. Saying that didgeridoos cause female infertility is patently false and a red herring.
There's a lively discussion about this over on Pharyngula too.
A didgeridoo is precisely:
A four-foot length of 2" - 4" pipe
a beeswax mouthpiece.
Audit those Home Depots, Lowe's, and Ace Hardware stores, gents - no women employees, and no women customers. Better get written statements from the plumbing customers regarding their intentions for that PVC piping.
if you take away someone else's superstitious bullshit you frequently destroy them. If your association with them convinces them to abandon their superstitious bullshit on their own, all have profited.
They should market it as a birth control product.
Yeah, but for males, playing with a didgeridoo means you get hairy palms and go blind. . . I'll take infertility over that any day.
I just don't see what is so scary about actual, scientific facts taking over superstition.
Cultural value ought to be rooted in something more relevant and tangible than cryptic mythology.
This makes me think of a sexist glass harmonica (or just "armonica") scare. That too is just a gussied-up version of partly-filled glasses of water... that would surely and irrevocably drive you insane!
So what? Australian aboriginal culture is no more intellectually homogeneous than any other culture.
If one's use of the digeridoo ends up causing infertility, I think that the use in question can safely be filed under "you're doing it wrong" and the user should probably seek medical attention, as infertility was probably the last in a line of injurious effects caused by misuse. Internal bleeding and massive bruising would probably have been the first clues as to improper usage.
I can certainly understand their usage as a religious and spiritual tool, but instead of advocating for the wholesale destruction of the work in Australia, instead kindly request some elucidating literature be added. I feel that method would benefit all sides of the debate. Even just saying that it is used ceremonially, chiefly by men, as a historical and cultural insight would be preferable. A call for balance and background and more information included, instead of a call for it to be excised.
Since it hasn't been said yet, I would have favored this approach:
Digeridoo? Please, digeridon't.
This relates closely to my new favorite blog: "This is Why Australia Can't Have Nice Things." http://australiasucks.tumblr.com/
Culture is not an excuse for misogyny.
nope, but superimposing a foreign culture or unilaterally gutting an existing culture never works.
Oh! Awesome! Finally, no more bothersome BC pills! *grabs nearest didgeri..didg...blow-thing*
Nobody owns culture. People participate in it. If the girls who read the book are part of the aboriginal culture that frowns on it, then either the culture has held sway on the issue, and they won't use it, or it has not, and the culture is being changed by the people participating in it. If the girls who read the book are not part of the aboriginal culture, they're under no obligation to abide by any of the restrictions of it just to play an instrument (aside from, if they happen to be using somebody else's didgeridoo, it would probably be basic politeness not to do something that would offend them).
Am I one of the very few who wouldn't necessarily see infertility as a "curse"?
Takuan, the argument that "I myself don't think every aspect of every culture is worth saving. But that decision should be made by those that own the culture" can be rebutted with a single word: sati.
I was going to apologize for being inflammatory (though I believe justifiably so), but then I realized that my argument involved literal flames.
The same is true for traditional Tuvan throat singers. They do it to sing to different spirits, or to describe different landscapes in breath and tones. This is seen as a sacred rite which pays respect to one's ancestors. If a woman does it, some still believe, it may make her infertile.
An safeguard very commonly put in place to preserve the mystery of certain sacraments: limiting the amount of people who can (or are allowed to) do it.
The Council are within their rights to express their beliefs- but as many of them are esoteric in their origin, they cannot expect everyone to understand them.
Am I one of the very few who wouldn't necessarily see infertility as a "curse"?
Haha, nope. On the feminist blog where I first saw this story my comment was a very sarcastic, "Infertility? NOOOOOOOO!!!!"
The Authors knew that it caused infertility.
That's why its the DARING book for girls!
"Dare you to play it!"
@26
the stopped burning widows when they were ready, not just because the occupying army told them to.
Watch Afghanistan.
the stopped burning widows when they were ready, not just because the occupying army told them to.
That doesn't mean people shouldn't take a stance against such things, especially now that we have better diplomatic techniques than some arrogant British soldiers calling brown people savages.
When you heard about the recent burying alive of women in Pakistan, did you honestly think, "Well, that's pretty shitty, but they'll stop when they're ready"? (Not that murder and not being allowed to play the didgeridoo are really comparable, but those murders in Pakistan are quite comparable to the sati example.)
"We know very clearly that if our women are allowed to exit the kitchen, wear shoes, or otherwise maintain a state of non-pregnancy, they will dress like Rosie the Riveter and join the LPGA. If you know what I mean." --DeuceMojo
I have a female friend who plays the didge and had a difficult time finding a traditional (read: abo) instructor for the instrument due to the above-mentioned cultural taboos.
Anyway - I forwarded the article to her to find out if her ovaries are quaking in fear.
#17 posted by retchdog:
This makes me think of a sexist glass harmonica (or just "armonica") scare. That too is just a gussied-up version of partly-filled glasses of water... that would surely and irrevocably drive you insane!
My understanding is that the people of the day ascribed it to the effect of hearing angelic tones. They felt that we mortals were never meant for such beauty and our minds would eventually crack from overexposure. The modern interpretation is that lead from the glass would contaminate anyone who played it too often, causing deranged behavior.
While I generally rant that we're destroying entirely too many of the interesting myths of the world... This wouldn't be one of them I'd miss.
@8 & 25 - agreed.
Perhaps the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association is merely confusing infertility with celibacy. Some musical instruments just WON’T get you laid.
See also, Alphorn.
Apparently HarperCollins will remove the chapter from future reprints.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24292872-2702,00.html
@ V #33
Just a friendly comment:
You probably didn't realised, but 'abo' is a *very* offensive word. It's on a par with the N-word.
You could try substituting 'Aboriginal' or 'Indigenous' instead to avoid offending people. (:
Another case of a wire service conveniently paraphrasing a radio (news) story to appeal to the Murdoch media school of journalism.
The full transcript of the radio interview is here -> http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2354045.htm. It places the story, and the academic's opinion, into more context.
Oh and OM (#9) you made me LOL ...
^^^^ Error in posting left a full stop at the end of the link above ...
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2354045.htm
That should work
INFERTILITY! A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH!
Gimme a break.
Wait, wait, wait.
Did someone (#3) just drag out the mercilessly beaten "if you add 'C' to the beginning of 'RAP' you get 'CRAP'" dead horse in the year 2008? The one I thought my hick uncle from Florida was the ONLY person on earth still injecting into conversation?
I know two grandfathers from Europe (one an octogenarian) who enjoy hip hop immensely, and even my own hyper-Christian parents have to admit that rap music is an art form worth of respect. I'm not even much of a fan personally, but, way to hopelessly date yourself.
Does it work for guys, too?
And remember, a girl can get pregnant if she swims in the same swimming pool with a boy.
No, wait, I got that wrong -- actually, she can get pregnant if she uses the same toilet a boy just used.
Or was it necking in a bikini?
Damn! The human reproductive system is so insidious.
11, Kay:
I have to agree with you here, Aboriginal culture is by no means monolithic or homogenous, it is an archipelago of shared traditions, spreading across a vast continent (including some, 200 languages).
I spent 5 years of my childhood growing up in the Australian outback, and never heard the notion that girls weren't supposed to play, or even touch the didj', until today. So I can only imagine that this gender-related restriction is part of a Southern (or other) Aboriginal tradition, rather than the Northern one I knew (or that we just lived in some oasis of gender equality. HAH! We didn't, really).
We had quite a few cultural learning weeks and Aboriginal culture-appreciation outings, where we'd go to some significant place to learn about the traditions of the area, or the Aboriginal kids in the class would share something (like dances and ceremonies) with the rest of the class.
I can remember at least two seperate occasions, where we were shown didj playing and encouraged to try our hand, including a performance at the end. Boys and girls were equally included and it wasn't an issue.
Let me note, that this wasn't a sanitized tourist-version for the local white kids, these were local elders and young people (actual families I went to school with every day) teaching these awareness-days, and I never heard the idea that girls shouldn't play, let alone that they might become infertile because of it.
Let me futher note, that I although I know something about Aboriginal culture from growing up around it, I certainly don't pretend to be an expert or know enough to argue with anyone. I just wanted to share my experience, and the cultural variations within Aboriginal culture, and my surprise at hearing of this particular gender-restriction, that I'd never previously heard of.
Playing the didgeridoo causes infertility? Woohoo! If anyone needs me, I'll be at the traditional instruments store.
I recollect hearing of the tabu many years ago - outside Australia. Often the emigres of a culture become time capsules while the homeland moves on.
I am female. I have played a didgeridoo. Here's the kicker, perhaps: I played it as part of an educational program for my school and the instructor for it was Aboriginal in origin.
I would not take the views of one particular Aboriginal association to be reflective of the views of all, just as I would not view the words of one American politician to be indicative of the views of all Americans.
Oh please. The didj hasn't been a 'sacred' instrument for decades. Buskers use them TO MAKE MONEY for spagmonster's sake. This is the most risible thing an Australian has said since John Howard claimed Global Warming was a myth.
Man, I think Hitchens is right more and more... religion *does* ruin everything.
Seconding # 24 in response to # 4. No one "owns" culture.
And no one has a "right" to prevent others from taking, opining on, demeaning or celebrating "their" culture. This is a result of living in, you know, the world.
I now want to build an army of didgeridoo wielding women.
So it is up to a given culture to give up an oppressive practice? But if in that culture men are the ones making the decisions, and the practice oppresses women, are we supposed to wait until those men are ready to give up that practice?
Fuck that. Fuck that in every culture where it occurs.
Slavery can be a tradition. Sexual mutilation can be a tradition. Child rape can be a tradition. The hell with all of it.
Because cultures don't alway move forward. Sometimes they move backwards. Case in point? Look at ours right now.
Wow. The tone of this post is... misleading, as many are. But what is implied by omission is really shitful.
Indigenous Australian culture does not neccessarily subjegate women, but it does indeed have very different streams of religion, ceremony and value for the two different genders. A society and cultural setup put ion place to value and respect the two very different genders in traditional aboriginal society.
To claim this is sexist, or to start bandying behavious from Sudanese individuals (in any cultural context) shows a boatload of ignorance. The sort of ignorance that resulted in these people (Aboriginal / Indigenous australians) being systematically removed from their families with a view to wiping them out.
Shitful phrasing of a shitful story, guys.
I'd also like to point out that there are many, many things men can't do within alot of Indigenous parctice of religion or mythology, and it's not just childbirth and the dishes.
There are well-established reasons for this, even if those reasons are steeped in "dreamtime fact".
LAUREN O: To call it mysoginy isn't entirely fair, at least not in our understandaing of the word. We're talking ancient cultures (note plural) here, where survivial and ritual were very closely linked. The arrival of europeans changed alot of that, for the worse. But it did show alot of people, as their ability to hold their rituals was removed, and they stpooed surviving, that the link was real and should be maintained.
MIDSENTENCE:
...way to hopelessly date yourself.
What? It's a disgrace to be old enough to not care for rap? Way to hopelessly show your ass.
KAT JOHNSTON:
I would not take the views of one particular Aboriginal association to be reflective of the views of all...
Exactly! Racism is the only explanation for accepting such assumptive stereotyping of an entire people.
Indigenous Australian culture does not neccessarily subjegate women, but it does indeed have very different streams of religion, ceremony and value for the two different genders.
Separate but equal is not so great, actually, brother.
55 SISTER Y: Not entirely seperate, it isn't like there was no co-mingling, life was very much lived together for the most part, from what I know.
I think it is remiss to clamour for absolute equality if you lose sight of the fact that individuals, for reason of gender in this instance, have their own strengths and weaknesses. As it is equally foolish to seperate them outright and assign inseperable meanings to them.
Indigenous Australians did both these things for predominately practical reasons - again, from the few cultures I still have the opportunity to discover and learn from - ones that revolved around surviving a nomadic lifestyle in the desert.
Buddy, I think you may have shown your own ass in this instance.
What has age got to do with enjoying any type of music? There are older and younger people than yourself who love rap/hip hop, and Midsentence's coment went to obvious pains to demonstrate this.
In its context, Midsentence's remark was about a tired argument/catchphrase still being bandied about against someone else's choice of music. Is it any different to the Steampunk trolls?
I gotta agree with him. It's just music. If you don't like it, why bring it up just to slate it. I don't think his comment had a single thing to do with age, more about placing the original remark's context in time.
Not that that has anything to do with playing a didgeridoo - there is no practical reason anyone cannot play it, besides actual ability and perhaps lung capacity.
I work in an Aboriginal Health Centre and have to deal with... unhelpful individuals applying a very different value sets onto indigenous folk trying to subscribe to a more traditional way of life.
do traditional aborginal women object to the taboo?
Wow. I'd say this has been about the most offensive stream of posts I've ever read on BoingBoing. That story is taken very out of context. Now until reading this post I'd never heard the idea that women weren't meant to play the didge and I have some close Aboriginal friends. However perhaps we should look at the title of the book.
"The Daring Book for Girls" and a quick look at the books website "the perfect book for any girl with an eye for adventure and a nose for trouble" given this information I'd say the publishers very well knew that some Aboriginal tribes believed that it wasn't right for girls to play the didge, however they decided to publish this anyway. They could have put some information in stating that some cultures thought it was bad or whatever but I'm guessing they didn't. Instead they just spat in the face of a culture that has been absolutely shitted on since Whiteman landed here a little over 200 years ago.
If the original posting had been about a Tibetan spiritual leader for some reason saying it was culturally offensive for women to play some kind of traditional Tibetan instrument (which is essentially what Mark Rose was trying to say, however he worded it) I imagine the BoingBoing crowds reaction would have been very different.
Also I really hope that #33 - V isn't from Australia otherwise please stop posting.
Takuan, we'd have to ask all of them. I doubt anyone ever has.
The couple I know would not object, one of whom (Delma Barton) was quite famous a number of years ago for singing into a didj, in a kind of operatic (but not western) style. It was pretty amazing, extremely haunting, echoy.
She did not play the didj, but she sang through it and was well respected. Her husband was the last full-blooded member of the Kalkadoon (Kalkadunga) tribe and her son is now a world famous didgeridoo player: William Barton.
I think you will find the attitudes not quite as concrete as suggested in the article.
ah so
http://www.bushcrafts.com.au/Info_pages/Can_women_play_didgeridoo.html
I never would have thought that the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association and Sarah Palin would have anything in common.
Itsumishi, I think you are almost entirely wrong (in your tone at least).
I don't think anyone can tell girls (of Aboriginal heritage or not) whether thay can play the didj.taht granted, nor can you bar anyone from enabling girls (in whatever tone, "daring" etc) to do so.
Frankly, if you think the didj should be protected from girls because they are somehow disrespecting the heritage of the instrument, lets also take it away from all the other people playing it in a non-traditional way, using it for commercial gain etc.
I don't think people would be any different in their attitudes and their commentary if this case originated in Tibet, and I think it somewhat disingenuous for you to suggest it.
Also, if this is the most offensive thing you have ever read on BB, you have not been paying attention.
if a non-aboriginal person, male or female, takes a tube shaped like a didgeridoo and blows through it, they are not "playing the didgeridoo". If they take pains to call it a didgeridoo, they may be insulting some people,but they are still not playing the didgeridoo.
"I'm doing what I love," Barton says. "I want to take the oldest culture in the world and blend it with Europe's rich musical legacy."
Tak,
you mean like a Irish Dord'?
Played in the same way as a didj, but made of bronze.. from about 3 or 4 thousand years ago. Check here for more info on these types of instruments in Ireland, on Simon O'Dwyer's site.
It's funny, he (William Barton) use to come round my house when he was about 10 or 11, and read my comics.. look at him now!
59: The taboo in question here is actually quite limited, which makes this all a big non-starter for me.
In formal ceremonies men played it, specific men, generally, who had standing in the community as a spiritual leader.
Outside of formal ceremonies women could and CAN play it, but it is not encouraged. Again - pick a region, pick a group of people. They'll have different names and ceremonies surrounding all of this.
and, takuan again, 65: leads us to "What makes a digeridoo a digeridoo", which sounds like a headache I don't care for on a Friday afternoon ;)
A non-starter that really pissed me off at first (similar to Itsumishi), but when you pick it apart it's the greatest internet argument ever.
No contextual information + very little factual grounding = let's have a debate.
the dord, lovely, rather like a serpent. The old breathe again. Last year I heard the organistrum.
is Carrot a dwarf?
Arkizzle, you seem too young to have such a mysterious past!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252444/
met Noyce, strange, remarkable man
Oops, my second link @ 67 should be prehistoricmusic.com..
Yeh Tak, they really are beautiful instruments, and serpenty, as you say.
Sis: Hah! :)
how you? long time no hear..
I am great, but I think I speak for all of us when I say we want to hear more about your experiences in the Outback, didj-related or not, and also JBANG's experiences as a health care worker, racist-idiot-related or not.
yes,we do.
This + this, says it all really..
Bit too late in the evening for me to get recounting, but I'm sure at the next mention of Australia I'll bring it up again :)
Sis, glad your well
Arky,
You're right. Age has nothing to do with it. OM's comment was dismissive of "(c)Rap" and he dates himself by using a dismissive cliche that's as old as Rap itself. Incidentally, "hopelessly dating yourself" is older than either cRap or Rap.
But I'd sure like to hear what those two European gramps make of the Rap and hip-hop idiom, wouldn't you?
So I'll just cover up my ass and listen to one of my three Ms: Miles, Monk or Mozart. That really dates me!
Buddy, only if it dates me too :)
Before european settlement the didgeridoo was only know to have been played in the far central north in Arnhem land and immediate territory. The Victorian Aboriginal Education Association is based in the state of Victoria which is in the extreme south east of Australia. In short the didj has never been played there as a ceremonial instrument.
BTW I was born and raised in the Northern Territory(twice as big as texas 200,000 people a third of which is aboriginal) and live in Melbourne(4 million people), Victoria. The aboriginals here are very thin on the ground, as is any traditional lifestyle. The few "aboriginals" I've met are culturally and genetically more european than aboriginal.
Awesome! That's cheaper than an operation to accomplish the same thing, not to mention years of birth control.
Too bad it's LIES.
My mum's done a lot of work with various local aboriginal communities over many years. She's been invited to ceremonies that no white person (well, no one outside of that community, I suppose... but that means no white people) are supposed to see.
It got to the point where the local elders decided that she was an aboriginal person born in to a white persons body. She's had initial ceremonies and been given tribal name and all of that stuff. It's pretty neat.
Coming up next on Dr Phil: "Help! My mum is a trans-cultured person!"
Sister Y: What do you want to know? As far as poersonal experience of the people and cultures - it's sovaried and different. One thing of note when looking at gender studies in traditional culture is understanding how much value was placed on the women. Not just as tools of reproduction - but a real level of respect. "Secret men's business", of which there is alot, is as much a way for men to take bnack some of power they percieved women to have, as controllers of reproduction. Again, this isn;t universal, we're talking about a nomadic people.
My partner is an anthropolgist with Native Title - a wing of the state govt and AGD - and has filled my head with alot of information from some of the very scret ceremonies he's been privvy to see as part of verifying claims put to NT.
JMoose isn't wrong when he says aboriginal folks are few on the ground in alot of areas, and not many people live traditionally. But many are trying to reclaim part of that heritage that was so recklessly stomped out by our federal government from, well... it's inception until quite recently.
This debate for me is so heavily clouded, and seeing some of the plain ignorant comments of some of the earlier contributors really got my back up. But it's hard to contribute something meaningful without rattling of a very long eassy.
Girl. Played didge years ago (a real one, not a hardware store pipe, though I've done that too.). Have 2 babies. Not worried.
prove it!
JBang, I think your comments have been meaningful. Keep in mind that BB is a pretty anti-interventionist space - we're talking here about whether a custom is right and whether a book challenging it should be "pulped," not about didj antidiscrimination laws, but I understand your position.
88 comments and no reference to famed female didgeridoo player Lisa Simpson?
The BoingBoing commenters are falling down on the job.
I've seen these DARING BOOK FOR GIRLS and the one for boys. The American versions at least are poorly made and contain ancient content that fell out of copyright ages ago. "How to wrap a package with paper and twine" is one of the horrors in the Boys book. The boy's book also has pages and pages of dry history.
Sad. The series could have been really good if they showed how to chop down a tree, how to make a bamboo fishing pole, and lots of other things I remember in my parent's old books for children. You can tell that lawyers stripped out anything that could possibly lead to a lawsuit. (Little Jimmy got splinters making a home made scooter and then broke his wrist while riding. Need to sue!!)
I wish the American version had information about the didgeridoo. Maybe it did. Never got further than skimming the pages.
I've seen both of those books and I must say I am not impressed. My 4-year-old daughter already has a passion for science. She loves bugs, and collects rocks. We took apart her broken CD player just the other day to see what was inside. She wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. But she also loves dresses and fairies, so...best of both worlds.
And she has played our didgeridoo more than once. I'll have to get back to you on any future side-effects.
When I saw the Independant's article on this story, this is what I came up with:
This book was not meant written to get Australlian Aboriginals to confront the sexist, superstitious traditions of their culture or to create any sort of cultural or feminist perspective. It was just supposed to be an inspirational book for young girls. So I'm perfectly fine with the publisher apologizing for including the instructions on playing the didgeridoo.
But now that this story is out in the open, modern Aboriginals have to decide whether they should continue to pass on and revere all of the aspects of their old culture just because it's "tradition". Cuz, in the history of humanity, these traditions have only been around for a miniscule amount of time, and with glaring differences between the misogynist patriarchalism that was accepted in the past and the egalitarian values that feminists have been fighting for us to recognize in recent history, something's got to give. These defenders of these taboos and superstitions have either got to say "We don't care what you say about the role of women now, we'll do what we have always done", or "We don't have to uphold this BS anymore, we should think for ourselves".
Sister y: I've got a good idea on what stance BoingBoingers would take on such things, which is why some of these comments bugged me.
92 Melonbread is a good example - if you don't have an understanding of the history of indigenous australians than it's going to be hard to not frame this as a feminist / equality issue. It really isn't.
JBang, agreed, except that one group of people (who care about the tradition is trying to tell girls (specifically) who don't know or care about the tradition, not to play the didj.
Now I can understand your position, if the women who cared about the tradition were the ones not partaking in something considered taboo. But this is not that.
It has escaped the bounds of tradition and become a boys vs girls thing. Would offense still be taken if the Daring book for boys published the same chapter? Lots of people play the didj ex-ceremony, but it's only the girls who are being warned off.
If this was about the "history of indigenous australians" it wouldn't be just about girls, it would be about all white people taking the sacred traditions and using them in an unacceptable manner.
Didj playing, for anyone who isn't an Aboriginal traditionalist is secular and non-traditional, but it seem only the girls are being pick up on.
Wow, too many typos in that last post from me.. Doh!
Granted I don't think he or anyone can stop people from playing the didge. However I don't think anyone standing up and saying that they find it offensive should be abused either.
I guess the point I'm trying to say is he is not responding to a girl playing the didge. He is responding to a book published daring someone to play it.
If the book had been called Daring Activities for Aboriginal Children. And the activity had been "look at photos and videos of your dead ancestors" (something Aboriginal people believe does not show proper respect to the dead) I'm pretty sure everyone but racist morons would agree its offensive.
And I know in my example I'm directing it directly at the Aboriginal people and not anyone at all, however the didgeridoo is a unique piece of Aboriginal culture and therefore messing with it, is messing with their beliefs. Again can I please point out that this culture has been absolutely shit upon since whiteman came to this Country?
It's actually not unique if you look at my post @ 67, but I understand the point you are making.
Truth is though, aside from the title and the promotional material, the book isn't really "daring" girls to do anything.
This is not a risque manual, detailing ways in which a free-spirited young woman may shrug off the shackles of polite society, by trampling on other's belief systems and becoming the fly in our collective ointment.
The table of contents lists such anarchic behaviour as:
Rules of the game: Basketball
Fourteen games of tag
Pressing flowers
Chinese jump rope
Periodic table of the elements
Knots and stiches
How to change a tire
Making your own quill pen
Math tricks
..amonst others.
didgeridoos are about to be promoted as a treatment for those with sleep disorders...surely this hasn't been developed purely for the benefit of men.
because i don't see any warnings about infertility and i'm sure LCG have done sufficient research into any side-effects of their new treatments...
and only daring girls will be reading this book anyway so they are ready for the consequences!!!